1994

Blur – Girls & Boys
Ahh. Britpop. When did the charts last get mentioned on the TV evening news?
Erm, probably when the latest instalment of Simon Cowell's Pop Tarts kicked off. Or at least when Rage Against The Machine swore their way to number one at Christmas. 'Fuck you, we'll all download the single if you tell me!' Oh, the irony.
But don't get me wrong: the Blur/Oasis thing was just as manufactured as anything that Simon the Trouser Terrorist has inflicted upon us. It was like the Beatles versus the Stones all over again, but with a bunch of Beatles wannabees versus a band who had at first pretended to be the Happy Mondays.
Parklife, however, was a great album. A concept in the sense of East End geezer interpreted by a bunch of art students alongside Phil Daniels. Girls and Boys fits better than the album's title track, so that's why it's here.
These days, Damon writes opera and hides behind cartoon characters, Alex makes cheese, whilst Dave fails to be a Labour MP. How we've all grown up. The brothers Gallagher, on the other hand, don't seem to have changed at all (apart from splitting up).
Number one on my birthday in 1994: Baby D – Let me be your fantasy Ravetastic.
Click here for the playlist so far